Fading light

We arrived at St Botolph's on what had been a very gloomy day, meaning the light was fading fast. It was our last visit of the year to this pretty church garden under the watchful eyes of Rik and Val. However we will be aiming to get some work done at Heene Church rooms over the winter months,

Roxy and Suegot stuck straight into sweeping leaves with Belinda getting her steps in, wheelbarrowing big piles of leaves to and from the compost heap.

Paula and John worked on digging over the doomsday font that we had spectacularly unearthed several years ago before planting up some palms and other shrub that Val had provided. John, Roxy and I also moved a huge stone from the font area around the corner to where the other large stones/ rocks reside - Roxy stepped into help after I got distracted after completing 50% of the task !

Sue from Heene Cemetery did some great sweeping whilst Rik and Val, our leaders, beavered away weeing and clearing moss from gutters.

Happy Birthday to me!

Roxy had very kindly made me a yummy chocolate cake birthday which was still warm so we shared it out and I took home the remainder-such a kind thought. Thank you Roxy!

Next Monday

We are at Heene cemetery for our final visit of the year - Ideally we would like to start at 5:30 pm to catch the light.

*Welcome *

Tonights pun is dedicated to the newest members of our GG family

Handsome Ben was born to our very own Natacha and Steve last Friday whilst Nick and I welcomed our beautiful granddaughter Frankie Bea into the world last Wednesday. Very exciting all round ( and busy !) May they both have a wonderful life - maybe they may date each other one day 🤣😍

Mondays task

Back to this evenings task ..... We met up with Val and Rik who coordinate the volunteering in the church garden. Val is always super organised and has all the tasks on a board which is colour coded for both choice together with intensity guidance.

Gillybean got stuck in with digging out more unwanted shrubs ( I can't remember the name of them 🤣) It was good to learn that her heel is gradually improving and that she's getting the medical help she needs to expedite the process.

Belinda and Sue picked a high energy and very prickly job of pulling out very large brambles. They managed to clear a huge area so a great job done 👏

John also picked the strenuous job of digging over the area behind the old air raid shelter . The aim was to try and get it levelled too. Its fair to say that John went a long way to make this happen !

Barbara and Paula buddied up to pull persistent ivy off the stone wall. Paula was fresh from her 60th Birthday celebrations 🍾 and it was great to hear all about her adventures - especially the zip wire one! 😀

It was great to see Anne tonight who was helping Sue from Heene Cemetery with some pruning and sorting whilst Val dug over the compost heap and generally organised the whole task 😇

With the October light fading fast we finished up with a group photo and some chatter !

We are back next week for our final visit of the year to St Botolphs before the light goes.

Have a great week everyone and spare a thought for the sleep deprived new parents!

Julia xx

Sunny Worthing

Sunny Worthing did not disappoint today . It was a stunning evening in our borough!

We were back at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church garden. Val and Rik had a list of jobs for us divided into heavy, medium and light jobs so everyone could choose what they wanted to do.

John chose the heavy slab re positioning helped by Belindabefore they headed over to help on the other side of the garden.

Gillybean and Barbara were working on some major pruning of the large shrubs whilst Ryan and Sarah were doing some removal of stink Iris and weeding too.

With everyone pitching in to clearing ivy and tidying up of the debris , it was a great team activity and as ever, friendly vibes too.

Enjoy the sunshine team !

See you next week at Kamelia Kids

Julia x

The oh so elusive sun was still shining as the team gathered at St Botolph's to continue the battle against the unwanted growth, to allow the less invasive to thrive

A friend in weed is a friend in deed

Before our final task instructions were issued Gill dived straight into removing weeds around the base of the church, joined enthusiastically by Roxy when she arrived

Tools rushed in, where angels feared to tread

Sue (our Sue!) and Belinda headed off to help Sue (task owner Sue) collect the tools we would need to defeat the weeds and ivy that have clearly been enjoying the mixed weather more than some of us have.

The Ivy League of GoodGymers

Once the full team were on site we tackled the task with gusto! Weeds were pulled, ivy was stripped, bushes were trimmed, and stinking Iris evicted.

*Monday Fun Day *

With rain forecast (again) we were lucky to find another window in the weather to return to one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church.

When we arrived, our task host Val had a clearly illustrated on a cork board a choice of tasks that she would like done.

Barbara Daisy and John got stuck straight into the tasks whilst Belinda and i headed off down the road to Heene Community rooms garden which GG have been working on all winter to do some weeding and planting. Sue and Paula also arrived and joined the St Botolphs based team.

With two tasks happening alongside one another, its a good thing that GG Worthing are such an authentic group and don't claim extra good deeds !

Great job everyone !

See you all next week :)

Julia x

After a delightfully sunny weekend I was feeling hopeful that we may be lucky and avoid another drenching.....

WRONG Within 2 minutes of arriving the rain started we all got drenched and filthy with mud!

Despite this our hosts Val and Rik were pleased to see us for our first visit of the year to them ( although they weren't too keen on the rain ! )

We had clear instructions from Val to dig over ,weed and plant up some small and medium sized shrubs that Val had brought along with her.

Whilst my team got stuck ( in the mud) I loaded up my car with the wet and muddy debris from last time and took the blue bags down to the seafront where they will ( hopefully) be picked up by our amazing refuse team.

By the time I got back to the task the weather had gone from bad to worse so we quickly concentrated on planting up the shrubs ( no need to water them in! ) followed by gutter surfing our shoes to get the mud off ( and in Barbara's case jumping with wild abandon in the puddles! )

All the photos represent just how wet and miserable it was! With this in mind I wanted to say a massive thank you to Gillybean and Barbara who were fresh from their long volunteering stint at Brighton marathon on Sunday together with Paul and Belinda You all deserve extra kudos for ploughing on in those weather conditions and not complaining once! 👏 👏👏👏

Let's hope the weather improves for the pond maintenance next Monday 🙏

Stay dry and have a great week.

Thanks everyone 🥰

Julia xx